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No sooner did Ike mention that the U.S. produces good red wine than Kozlov sent for some. "Oh no." protested the President. "Have some!" boomed Kozlov. "Well," sighed the President, "just a little." Ike lifted the glass, studied the color, sniffed the bouquet, took a sip. "Very good," he said. "We drink port after dinner." The small talk persisted. Kozlov asked the President if he was in a hurry. "Oh. we've got about a half hour," he replied. He held up his wrist to display a new watch. "It has the days and the moon phases," said Ike. Kozlov shook his head in admiration.
The company plowed on through a fast tour of the exhibit of Soviet art. which turned out to be mostly a collection of representational paintings glorifying the joys of Communist life (e.g., Volunteer Pioneer of the Virgin Lands, showing a windswept Russian youth gazing squarely into a bucolic future). At length, the presidential party headed for the elevators. Said Ike to Host Kozlov: "I think this is a very, very admirable exhibit.''
Dreams & Dolls. For all Kozlov's pride in the chock-full Soviet exhibit, the plain fact was that it mirrored not Russian life today but a combination of genuine achievements (e.g., in the sciences) and a happy dream of the future. Wrote the New York Times'?, Russian-speaking Max Frankel. just after a two-year tour of duty as a Moscow correspondent, during which he made a swing through the breadth of the Soviet Union: "Many a Russian would agree with the one who expressed a desire to come to the New York exhibit to find out how he lives . . . [It] strives for an image of abundance with an apartment that few Russians enjoy, with clothes and furs that are rarely seen, and with endless variations of television, radio and recording equipment, cameras and binoculars that are not easily obtained in such quality or range in Soviet stores." Frankel's reply to those who might say, "I didn't know they live this well": "They don't."*
That night Kozlov matched politely pointed speeches with Vice President Nixon at the formal opening of the exhibit.
Nixon: There are basic conflicts of interest and deeply clashing ideologies that cannot easily be removed.
Kozlov: The Soviet people have undertaken the task 'not only to catch up with but, let me say outright, to surpass you in the not-too-distant future . . .
Next day, Kozlov took a side trip to a Long Island toy factory (where he posed in a Steve Canyon helmet and was presented with a $30, two-foot doll for his eleven-year-old daughter), and a Camden, N.J. shipyard (where he inspected a nuclear-powered merchant vessel now abuilding). By the time Frol Kozlov was ready to fly off for the serious business in Washington, the U.S. was ready to admit that he deserved a closer look.